VCU School of Medicine receives competitive NIH Challenge Grant in Health and Science Research

By Sathya Achia Abraham

The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine a highly competitive Challenge Grant in Health and Science Research totaling nearly $1 million to learn about the Richmond community’s opinions and interest in research in an effort to advance clinical, social behavioral and translational research in the area.

The NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research is a new initiative that supports research in specific fields where there are gaps in knowledge, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation or research methods

The two-year grant, “Community Partnership for Ethical Research,’ awarded via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will be led by Elizabeth Ripley, M.D., professor in the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Internal Medicine.

Ripley and her team will engage the community in conversations and activities to explore research needs and interests and to develop better two-way mechanisms for community-based participatory research projects, including exception from informed consent trials. The team also will create a multi-layered network of community-university partnership opportunities for research.

“We do not want to only go to the community with our research needs and agenda but we want to truly listen to the community as to their opinions about research as well as their interests,” said Ripley.
 
“We will be asking community members to become an active part of research to help develop a communication network, identify new areas for research and help us to design culturally relevant and appropriate research,” she said.

The team includes VCU researchers Cornelia Ramsey, Ph.D., an assistant professor of epidemiology and community health and community research liaison with the VCU Center for Clinical and Translational Research and Division of Community Engagement; Joseph Ornato, M.D., professor and chair of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Emergency Medicine, Bonnie Quearry, grant writer with the VCU Center for Clinical and Translational Research; and Sabre Green, a community outreach historian with the VCU Department of Internal Medicine.